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Sunday, 28 May 2017

Government on alert for ‘zero-day’ attack

The government has sounded an alert for a possible onslaught on its information technology apparatus, warning that loopholes in software and the set-up at large could be exploited by assailants to paralyse the system."Loopholes in software and the set-up at large could be exploited by assailants to paralyse the system.

Such a cyber assault, where a system’s vulnerability is exploited by hackers to gain unauthorised access to infiltrate malware or spyware, is known as a ‘zero-day’ attack".The government’s heightened vigil comes amid increased concerns about malware attacks on critical installations, especially in the wake of the recent ‘Wannacry’ ransomware attack that crippled hundreds of thousands of systems in at least 100 countries.

Union information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that a National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) was being set up to counter security threats and strengthen the IT security apparatus. “We are strengthening the cyber-security walls, and this is being undertaken on a proactive basis,” Prasad told TOI, “It is a 24X7 vigil.” A government report has pointed at “security threats” to official infrastructure through laptops, desktops and mobile phones being used by senior officers.

According to the report, there should be a “central control” on the browsing, and these measures should be rolled out through the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In). Prasad said that the cyber coordination centre was being set up in order to have real-time situational awareness and mount a rapid response to cyber security incidents. “It will generate the necessary situational awareness of existing and potential cyber-security threats, and enable timely sharing of this information for proactive preventive and protective actions by individual entities,” he added.

It was the government’s prompt response to warnings that minimised the impact of WannaCry in India. Prasad said that CERT-In had issued a “vulnerability note” regarding a potential cyber attack as early as March 15, and came out with a response on May 13 when the attack hit computers and software systems in the country. CERT-In also alerted the RBI as well as Sebi, besides key organisations in banking and finance, power, defence, telecom, income tax, and central and state governments.

The government has also formulated a crisis management plan to counter hackers, cyber terrorists and online attackers. “This will be implemented by all the ministries and departments of the central and state governments as well as organisations in critical sectors.”For original news click HERE

Saturday, 27 May 2017

Source ETTelecom

Launching such services could become critical to protect incumbents’ low-end subscriber base who could move out to Reliance Jio which is running an all-VoLTE network and offers voice for free.

An Airtel spokesperson said that the telco is piloting VoLTE in a few places, but didn’t comment on launch timelines. Vodafone and Idea didn't comment on ET queries, but Idea managing director Himanshu Kapania recently said that the No. 3 telco would introduce VoLTE over the next two quarters. “We are initially planning to be able to build VoLTE for about 20-25 million customers, which is sufficient enough to be able to take care of our 4G expectations in volume in India.”

Having finished testing, Idea Cellular expects to launch its VoLTE services by the second quarter (July-September) of this fiscal and cover 20-25 million customers.Rohan Dhamija, partner and head for India and South Asia at Analysys Mason, said that VoLTE device proliferation outside of Jio’s base is probably not at a critical mass, a reason why Airtel and other incumbents haven’t launched VoLTE service yet.“In fact, given that VoLTE has a lower cost per minute than traditional voice, in a scenario where the industry is under tremendous pricing pressure, in due course the importance of VoLTE could increase,” Dhamija said, adding that telcos should continue with VoLTE testing and be ready to launch commercially once device proliferation reaches critical mass.Launching such services could become critical to protect incumbents’ low-end subscriber base who could move out to Reliance Jio which is running an all-VoLTE network and offers voice for free. Analysts add that in a scenario where the industry is under tremendous pricing pressure, VoLTE is set gain in importance as it can be delivered at a lower cost per minute than traditional voice.

“Airtel’s VoLTE plans are on track having kicked off field or commercial trials in Mumbai and Delhi, and it will soon launch the service commercially in India,” a person familiar with the matter told ET. Another person said that Vodafone did basic trials of the technology, and will launch VoLTE services soon.

VoLTE allows an operator to offer both voice and data with voice being just another application that rides on an LTE data network, a technology that newcomer Jio has adopted. Incumbents currently offers calling on the legacy circuit-switch technology.detail News click HERE.

NEW DELHI: India’s telecom regulator has barred mobile-phone operators from offering different plans to subscribers in the same category, limiting the ability of incumbent telcos to sell customised plans to retain customers seeking to switch their loyalties to Reliance Jio.

“The authority directs all the Access Service Providers to ensure that all the tariffs offered to the consumers shall not be discriminatory between the subscribers of the same class, and to ensure that every tariff that is offered to a customer is invariably reported to the authority as per the reporting framework under the forbearance regime,” the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in a two-page order Thursday.

The existing rules require telcos to report all plans to Trai within seven working days of introducing them.

Thursday’s order means that the telcos, although free to offer any plan to any customer on clearance from Trai, would not be able to offer customized packs to an individual subscriber: The moment an order is filed for clearance with the regulator, it becomes available to all. Besides, the order takes away the advantage of bespoke plans for a telco, or the confidentiality of such offers.

Moreover, incumbents have hundreds of existing plans, and the approval for each additional plan could lead to breaching the limit of up to 25 plans a month that a carrier can file with Trai. Jio, which started commercial services on September 5 last year, has a limited number of plans on offer.

Trai Thursday said it had received complaints that some service providers were introducing tariffs without filing them with the regulator, and that they were offering “discriminatory tariff to individual customers within the same class”.

The directions issued in the form of a tariff order came after complaints to Trai from Reliance Jio that Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea were offering special tariff vouchers (STV), packs and discounts to influence those users wanting to shift out of their networks to Jio. The Reliance-owned Jio and the three incumbent service providers are engaged in a price war to attract and retain users.

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea had previously denied all allegations, claiming they were in full compliance of regulatory guidelines, including tariff orders and MNP (mobile number portability) regulations. The companies didn’t comment on the regulator’s order Thursday.

Officials at Trai said that besides the letter from Jio, they had received complaints from consumers who had referred to or contested plans that were not available on the Web sites of the telcos.

The Mukesh Ambani-owned carrier had highlighted the lack of transparency in tariff offers last month, and accused the incumbent competition of making surreptitious, personalised offers to select consumers in violation of existing rules.

Jio had alleged that some telcos were offering special tariff plans to select customers to prevent them from porting "under the garb of usage and retention," adding that some of these offers were being communicated to consumers in a personalised way through 10-digit mobile numbers, instead of being published. The practice violated current rules, Jio said.

Jio added that the actions of the rival telcos violated the tariff reporting requirements and breached the monthly permissible limit of 25 plans (prepaid and postpaid).

Jio had also alerted Trai about two of Bharti Airtel’s tariff offers (Rs 293 and Rs 449), complaining that the Sunil Mittal-owned telco was discriminating between 4G and other subscribers. It claimed that Airtel was providing headline benefits only to new subscribers with 4G handsets, while others were being given substantially lower benefits on both data and voice services.

The allegations intensified an ongoing war of words between Jio and the incumbent telcos, who have been fighting on issues such as trial of services, points of interconnection, and interconnect charges since the newcomer's entry last September.click HERE for original news from ETTelecom.

Source : ETTelecomThe emergence of new players in the telecomindustry may have signalled an era of free services, but whether that has led to better quality is arguable.

Free voice calls and economical data plans notwithstanding, patchy networks often come in the way of a buffer-free experience for users.While big telcos are working out piecemeal solutions to improve the efficiency of their networks, a Bangalore-based startup has been leveraging these inconsistencies to create a service that few businesses - or the government - can turn down.

Wired rightStarted as a live-streaming service for internal events of big organizations, ZifiLink - that went by the name 'Watchy Technology' - has morphed into a full-fledged product company that seeks to democratize reliable, high-speed internet by combining multiple networks and streaming it through one source. In simple terms it combines the data bandwidth of all the telecom players to provide super fast data speeds.

The company's flagship product works as a portable WiFi router that converges eight different telecom networks - be it Airtel, Vodafone or any other - to provide one ultra-fast internet connection, eliminating the need for expensive leased lines."ZifiLink 's system aggregates 3G or 4G links from eight dongles across networks to create a combined capacity that increases the reliability by a factor of eight," says founder & CEO of ZifiLink, Sriramkumar. "Even if bad weather attenuates one signal, the combination of the rest will still give users sustainable Internet," he adds. ZifiLink customers say that have got speeds of 40 Mbps using ZifiLink.

Spreading the webWhen it comes to Internet speeds, South Korea is the leader with an average of 26.1 Mbps. India has one of the lowest average connection speeds among countries in the Asia Pacific region at 5.6 Mbps.Average Connection Speed by APAC Country/Region (Source - Akamai)Although the applicability of ZifiLink offers a broad scope for the imagination, the startup sees a good start in taking the B2B route. While established enterprises can use it as a cheaper alternative to premium satellite-based solutions, it also solves the pain point of SMEs who are eager to reap the opportunities high-speed internet can bring to their businesses.

In addition to small companies in tier-2 cities, media companies also see a compelling value proposition in this product."ZifiLink can - and has - replaced expensive OB van needs by enabling fast WiFi connection inside any vehicle," says the 33-year-old entrepreneur. "Media is also increasingly moving towards using smartphones to stream content back to the studio. This creates an imperative need to have high-speed connectivity with you at all times without compromising on mobility - which is often stymied when depending on these vans. Moreover, the device is compact and can easily fit into a backpack," he adds.

The same vehicle-friendly application can be used by law enforcement agencies to connect their surveillance cameras to the control room. "Chennai police has used our product to get a seamless feed from PTC cameras during sensitive times like elections," he says.

Big organzations like Hindustan Petroleum (HP) are also cashing in on the cost-effective solutions that ZifiLink is offering by replacing the VSAT terminals at its petrol pumps with this product.

"HP has a large number of petrol pumps on the highways which need to be connected to ERP systems to ensure uninterrupted supply - a loss of even two hours would be equivalent to losing money in lakhs," he says. "With ZifiLink, these companies can get 100 times the speed of internet for less the cost of VSAT terminals which they currently depend on," he adds.For more click HERE

A. Qualcomm has over 30 years of tradition leading the path to
innovation. Our inventions fundamentally influence all aspects
of mobile implementation and user experience synergistically
making the whole wireless system work together to support
advanced services, bringing value far beyond individual
components.
5G is a unifying connectivity fabric that will expand the value
of mobile networks to take on a much larger role than previous
generations, empowering many new connected services
across an array of world-changing use cases. Qualcomm
has vast experience in all technologies and building blocks of
5G and is uniquely positioned to accelerate the launch of 5G
networks, devices and the enablement of new services.
5G will accelerate world transformation, gains in productivity,
and improve life quality. As we like to say: Why Wait.

Q. Qualcomm are being quite progressive with 5G plans –
“creating” rather than “talking” about the 5G future. What
does this “creation” look like?

A. As we did with 3G and 4G, Qualcomm is leading the world
to 5G. We are designing a unified, more capable 5G platform –
pioneering many new technologies to meet 5G’s expanded and
radically diverse connectivity requirements. We are driving 5G
NR from standardisation to commercialisation – contributing
to 3GPP standard activities and collaborating with industry
leaders on impactful 5G demonstrations/trials to prepare for
commercial network launches. At the same time, we are leading the evolution of 4G LTE to its
full potential, pioneering 5G technologies and use cases today
with LTE advancements such as unlicensed spectrum, deviceto-device,
narrowband IoT, and more.
Finally, we are supporting early 5G deployments and field trials
with our first 5G modem solution – the Snapdragon X50 5G
Modem – to gain real-world experience in commercializing
mmWave technology that will be utilised to accelerate the 5G
NR standard.

Q. Where do existing LTE, LTE-A networks fit in the 5G
conversation?

A. The best path to 5G is the implementation of advancements
made available by LTE Advanced and LTE Advanced Pro.
LTE Advanced Pro is a rich roadmap of 4G LTE technologies
which represent progressing LTE capabilities towards 5G.
These new technologies will not only vastly enhance mobile
broadband performance and efficiency, but also expand LTE
technology and ecosystem to new industries such as the
Internet of Things, vehicle-to-vehicle communications, digital
TV broadcasting, and more.
LTE Advanced Pro is leading the path to 5G by pioneering many
of the envisioned 5G technologies and use cases in advance of
expected 5G commercialisation.

Q. What key 5G partnerships are Qualcomm involved with?

A. The deployment of 5G will be a collaborative effort. From
standardization - where Qualcomm is a leading contributor to
the 3GPP 5G NR - to field testing of prototypes, to impactful
trials and demonstrations, we partner with industry leaders
who like Qualcomm are committed to invest and lead in LTE,
5G NR, and early 5G mmWave deployments, ranging from
device and network equipment manufacturers to carriers and
service providers.
Qualcomm has made multiple announcements of milestones
leading to the deployment with 5G and will continue doing so in
collaboration with industry leaders.

Q. What use cases do Qualcomm think will be key drivers for
5G commercialisation?

A. Similar to previous generational transitions, 5G will also
bring significant improvement in data rates and bandwidth, but
this time around we will also see great improvements in key
aspects that will enable new use cases. Ultra-low latency and
higher reliability capabilities will usher in applications such as
Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X), which will ultimately allow mass
adoption of autonomous vehicles.
Remote command and control of mission critical activities
in healthcare, public safety, drones and robots will get to
the necessary level of reliability for mass deployment. Also
important, low-power, simplified communication modes will
allow the massification of IoT applications as an expansion on
the foundation being laid today with LTE technology

Q. How has the 5G landscape changed over the past year?

A. We are transitioning from vision to reality, devices are
becoming available, trials and demonstrations are happening.
The level of excitement has certainly picked up and it will
continue gaining momentum through the next few years.

Q. Why has Qualcomm chosen to take part in 5G Series events,
such as 5G Latin America and 5G World, again in 2017?

A. The pace of wireless technology adoption in Latin America
has historically been lower than that of developed markets.
However, transitions in generations represent catch-up
opportunities. With good alignment among the players in the
region, technology adoption can be accelerated, generating
great value to the entire ecosystem.
5G Series events are a great opportunity to increase awareness
of the impending industry transformations, exchange
information within the community, and discuss opportunities
that are particular to the reality of the region.
The positive results of the 2016 edition encouraged us to
participate in the 2017 5G event. The audience included
companies and professionals we were interested in addressing;
the conference topics and speakers were of relevance to our
business; the event attendees provided interesting networking
opportunities.
Another reason why we saw value in the event in 2017 was
the inclusion of the Broadband segment, an important area for
Qualcomm’s connectivity businesses.

Tuesday, 16 May 2017

I asked people to select their best focus on 5G, given in four different categories. Though the number of participants were not in abundance but of significant positions and satisfactory to the time of survey taken ( So i say it a quick survey on 5G focus). The results are here below..
Question : how do you best define the 5G, you may select multiple option.
1. convergence+IOT+MANO -- 47%
2. NFV+SDN+Network Slicing -- 68%
3. VNF+DC+ORCH -- 10%
4. NR+WiFi+LAA -- 21%note since it was multiple selection so the sum of % is not 100%. I say it dilution in focus.
on quick inferences on this data followings could be take outs.
1. People looking in 5G, more software rather than hardware, more flexibility and scalabity. More aligned to application demands. 68% focus is here.
2. People looking all the available resource as a large scale convergence, better coverage and capacity, IOT, and management and operation ready. 47% focus is here.
3. accepting new radio or refarmed radio-not much in current focus. 21% focus i here.
4. Most controversial results are here, virtualization (microscopic virtualization, deliberately categorizing it) , is not in the propensity as expected. The reason could be complexity and unclear picture as of now. 10% focus appears here.I feel this interesting and would be looking for your views in comments, before interpreting in details.Please write.

Saturday, 13 May 2017

Telcos facing a large bill for the rollout of 5G network technology are worried that acquiring new spectrum licenses could add to the cost burden. During last week's Mobile World Congress, Timotheus Höttges, the CEO of Germany's Deutsche Telekom, implored regulators to make 5G spectrum available at "reasonable rates."

The European worry is understandable. During the 3G auctions of 2000, German operators paid a staggering $46.2 billion for spectrum licenses, with players in the UK coughing up about $35.4 billion. While spending was far more restrained in the 4G auctions that happened years later, German service providers paid €4.4 billion ($4.6 billion) for licenses in 2010 and another €5.1 billion ($5.4 billion) in 2015. Deutsche Telekom AG (NYSE: DT)'s spectrum bill of €1.79 billion ($1.9 billion) that year was equal to about one fifth of its annual earnings (before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) in Germany. (See Vodafone Big Spender in $5.8B German Auction.)

But any fears about an exorbitant 5G spectrum bill may be overblown. According to Amit Nagpal, a partner at spectrum advisory group Aetha Consulting, operators are unlikely to spend as much on 5G licenses as they did on 4G spectrum, and will certainly not rack up the same kind of fees they did to participate in the 3G market years ago.

For a start, there is a relative abundance of the higher frequency spectrum that will be used to support 5G in more densely populated areas, which should drive down the price per MHz of these frequencies. "I expect the unit cost of this to be a lot lower than we've seen for bands such as 800MHz and 2.6GHz," says Nagpal.

The lower frequency bands, conversely, contain much smaller amounts of spectrum but remain better for providing wide-area coverage (purely because signals travel further in these ranges than in higher frequencies). That means telcos will continue to attach greater value to these frequencies than to higher spectrum bands, says Nagpal. But he also doubts that spending on any of the sub-3.5GHz bands will be lavish.

"There is a fair amount of spectrum at 3.5GHz and below that can be used for 5G -- including by refarming spectrum used for 2G, 3G and eventually 4G services -- and so I don't see any one particular band raising massive amounts of money," he says. "An operator can always use some of their existing 800MHz and 900MHz spectrum as a backup, for example, in the event they don't win any 700MHz spectrum."

One possibility, however, is that certain "pioneer" 5G spectrum bands -- including the 3.5GHz band in Europe and the 28GHz band elsewhere -- attract higher valuations than would ordinarily be expected. "There may be a small premium for 5G pioneer bands since the first 5G handsets will initially be designed to work in a limited set of bands," says Nagpal. "However, I expect this won't last for long and that within two or three years handsets will support 5G in all the existing 4G bands."

Nagpal is also one of several industry commentators, including some high-profile operators, who think the attractions of very high frequency spectrum have been over-hyped. "The signals don't travel very far and don't go through objects, and so you will need an awful lot of basestations to cover a given area, for which the site rental costs and backhaul costs are very expensive," he says. "So I expect usage of these frequencies to be limited to hotspots, such as shopping and tourist areas."

Technology innovation and the use of lower frequency bands could help to reduce the expense of 5G rollout, but there is a growing expectation that deployment will take a very long time, and that 5G will co-exist with more advanced versions of 4G LTE technology for many years. (See DT CTO: Costs Must Fall or 5G 'Won't Work'.)

"Operators will buy kit that can largely be used for 4G and then gradually move to 5G when devices come into the market," says Bengt Nordström, the CEO of the Northstream consulting group. "It is realistic to expect that a lot more 4G will happen over the next five years."